German University Sports Federation

In a nutshellThe German University Sports Federation is the umbrella organisation of the German University Sport Institutions. Students and professionals are equally represented in the most important adh committees. This special form of participation in equal terms is also resembled on the adh board. More than 180 universities and universities of applied sciences with some 2.4 Mio. students and 400,000 employees are actually members of adh. The federation concentrates on national and international competition sports and education.

Moving forward nationally and internationallyadh organises competition sport events in more than 50 disciplines every year. The German University Championships, adh-Trophies and the adh-Open events offer the suitable competition for about 12.000 students per year. The range of sports reaches from popular ball sports to classical disciplines and the latest trend sports. On the international level adh cooperates with the European University Sports Federation (EUSA) and the International University Sports Federation (FISU). The most important highlight in the competition calendar is the biennial Summer Universiade, which is the largest multi-sports event beside the Summer Olympics. The European University Championships, the World University Championships and the Winter Universiades complete the international academic competition calendar.

More than Education and QualificationThe adh education programme is based on scientific innovations and new trends to improve the local university sport. Main aspects are trainings on organisation and management skills as well as consulting and networking. Special emphasis is put on the support of young female professionals. In 2003 the Mentoring Project “Tandem” was launched to increase the participation of women in leading positions of sport organisations and especially in university sports.

Academic Career and High Performance SportsThe German University Sports Federation supports excellence on the field of academic and sportive performance. The success of elite student athletes can be seen e.g. through a portion of 42.4% students members on the German Olympic Team of London in 2012. In order to improve the academic conditions of elite student athletes to conduct an academic and a sports career at the same time, in 1999 adh started the project “Partner University of High Performance Sports”. Today more than 90 participating partner universities are committed to provide special services, curricula that are more flexible and creative solutions for collisions with respect to attendance time and examinations for a better combination of studies and high level sports.

Stars of today and tomorrowIt is not surprising that the German University Sports Federation has the reputation of being the cradle for next generation’s offspring in German sports on the one hand as voiced by the former NOC president Prof. Walther Tröger. A good portion of today’s leading sports officials gained first insights and experiences serving as volunteers in commissions and committees of adh. On the other hand numerous successful Olympic athletes participated in World University Championships and Universiades before returning from Olympic competitions as well respected or medal decorated performers. Examples are Michael Groß, Heike Rosendahl, Thomas Lurz, Ariane Friedrich, Ole Bischoff oder Britta Heidemann and many more.